plate

Low footring, flaring sides, large flattened rim. Heavy stonepaste covered with white slip, painted with blue green and red floral decoration with black stems and outlines under a clear transparent glaze. Central medallion blue tulips, red carnations and small blue flowers. On rim, a succession on small red flowers, blue tulips and red carnation. The exterior has a register of blue flowers and fruit just on the flaring side.
Scattered traces of gold under glaze.

The polychrome underglaze painted dish, with a broad slightly curved rim and a small flattened well, shows European influence. In the first half of the AH 10th / AD 16th century, Iznik ware, in seeking new sources of inspiration for designs and forms, included the tondino, a shape of Italian origin. The striking form of the dish under discussion derives from this type of maiolica (tin-glazed earthenware) and its Turkish imitations.
The centre of the dish is decorated with a 'quatre fleurs' design of two tulips on short stalks, four roses on long curved stems and two sprays of other flowers, all springing from a leafy tuft. The roses with their large red blossoms dominate the centre of the dish and the decoration of the rim. The rim shows radiating floral stems of alternating tulips, roses and small flowers with red blossoms. Along the border of both rim and well, a red Chinese cloud and small forms derived from the motif of Chinese waves are set between the blossoms. The floral design with black outlines is coloured in a contrast of bright, slightly running blue and green with a thick raised applied opaque red on a white background. The outside of the dish is painted with ten blue flower-like motifs on white slip. The back and bottom of the dish, except for the foot-ring, are transparent glazed.

Source: [https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;se;Mus01;7;en&cp]

How date and origin were established:
The 'quatre fleurs' style was a development of the second half of the 10th / 16th century. The slightly running colours suggest a dating at the end of the 10th / 16th century – beginning of the 11th / 17th century, but not much later because of the high quality of the glaze. Atasoy and Raby dated a plate of similar shape and decoration to 1009–19 / 1600–10.

How Object was obtained:
Bequest of King Charles XV.

How provenance was established:
The floral decoration and the shape are both specific to Iznik ceramics.

Source: [https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;se;Mus01;7;en&cp]